Your certificate will be sent to your official veterinarian within 7 working days. If your official veterinarian doesn’t receive the certificate, contact the APHACentre for International Trade Carlisle.

Apply to register your holding

You’ll get a registration number to use on your export health certificates.

You must get your holding approved before you can move animals to an approved holding.

Apply to get your holding approved

Fill in form EC3164
(PDF, 67.5KB, 3 pages)
and send it to your regional veterinary lead (RVL). To find your RVL, contact your local APHA office. Form EC3164 is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg)
(PDF, 106KB, 3 pages)
.

An inspector will arrange a visit to your holding to check that it has:

walls, fences or other barriers separating it from the surrounding area

equipment, facilities and staff to catch, confine and isolate animals

quarantine facilities where you can isolate and test animals that come from non-approved holdings

a surveillance programme for incoming animals that’s been agreed with your vet

a clean and separated facility for carrying out post-mortems

a system for disposing of carcasses that’s been agreed with your vet

You also must make sure you:

keep records of animals’ age, sex, species, blood tests and diseases

employ an official veterinarian - you can find one by asking at your local vet, or by emailing ovteam@apha.gsi.gov.uk

Once your holding is approved

Contact APHA to move animals from your holding. You’ll get an approval number to use on your export health certificates.

Your holding must be inspected annually. You’ll normally be contacted by your RVL, but it’s your responsibility that the inspection takes place.

Your approval will be suspended if your holding breaks any of the approval conditions or if the RVL finds:

It’s an offence to travel with circus animals without registering – you can be prosecuted and fined up to £5,000.

Register your circus

You need to register your circus at least 40 working days before you want to travel.

To apply:

make sure your animals have animal passports and are up to date with tests and vaccinations

choose an official veterinarian to carry out a registration visit - to find one, you can ask at your local vet or email ovteam@apha.gsi.gov.uk (or contact DAERA in Northern Ireland)

fill in form ET79
(PDF, 205KB, 3 pages)
and return it to the address on the form with a £93 registration fee and passport fees - you can use the guidance notes
(PDF, 238KB, 12 pages)
to help you with the form

APHA will then contact your official veterinarian, who’ll carry out a registration visit and give you the animal passports, registration document and a unique registration number if you pass. They’ll charge a fee for the visit.

You’ll also get a letter from the APHA Centre for International Trade Bristol to confirm.